Part of '04 Sierra Challenge. Nice climb featuring two interesting events; 1 stranded climber, and 1 impressive mountain lion near Horton Lakes. The climber was able to exit on his own with help from another in our group. The mountain lion.. well, I didn't stay around to see what it did after it chased some deer into a box canyon. I went the other way (quickly).

Started at a late 10.42. The first time I'd been near 13k' in awhile, so it took me awhile to get going. Various threatening-looking clouds kept me second guessing my decision to continue as well, until I stashed my hiking poles & crampons at a notch between the main peak & a minor buttress. Decided to start here instead of continuing up the steep garbage chute.

Went up the face from aforementioned notch (to the R of a prominent dihedral on the main face), somehow reasoning that I'd eventually meet up w/ the standard route. I didn't, & spent a lot of time route-finding. Sort of zig-zagged up the face on rock from good to crumbly shit. Mostly sustained 4th class, with a few places of 5.2. Heard thunder as I neared the summit, making me quite anxious.

Summited to discover that there was a storm over the Owens Valley. Enjoyed the views with a Sierra Nevada Summerfest & a smoke, before going down the standard 4th class route to the notch (rock quality definitely much better here). Incredible views of Humphreys & Tom, & even a good gander over to the Palisades! Wonderful peak.

Had a monster standing glissade down, albeit with a swarm of mosquitoes that I couldn't seem to escape. Glissaded all the way down to the bottom of the snow line (maybe a few hundred ft above the mineshaft). Could definitely see coming back to snowboard down! Great day in a beautiful part of the Sierra.

Climbed with Al Kwok and socalmtneer. We started early at about 2:30AM from the locked gate and so we had great cramponing on hard snow pretty much all the way to the top of the notch. I climbed the rock section up & down in 45 minutes. Spent 10 minutes on the summit perusing through the summit register and couldn't find Peter Croft's entries (guess I didn't look hard enough). Had a fun glissade down almost to the mineshaft area.

Jim Wosnak and I started out at 8:45 am from the locked gate. Windy most of the way, but still a little warm. Made the top of the couloir by 2:30pm. The 4th class rock climb was enjoyable but very cold and windy with solid 4th class - maybe a couple 5th class moves. Downclimbing and one rappel led us back to the snow. We skiied from the top of the couloir all the way back to snowline - around 10,000 ft. and walked back to the car by 6:00 pm. Great day!

Starting at 3:30 am from the base camp (abounded mining cave) we reached the ledge of the Basin Peak by 8:00 am. The anticipated scramble to the summit ended up being a mixed rock and ice climb with lots of route finding. We reached the summit by 12:00 pm.

Almost continuous snow from the cars made this go a lot easier - until it got soft near top of couloir..........Made it from notch to cars in less than 1.5 hours thanks to an almost uninterrupted glissade.

Day (or shall I say night) hiked with Steve Larson. We found great snow conditions in the couloir on the way up. And what great scrambling to the summit!! While downclimbing the rock section, I took a wrong turn and found myself at the top of a cliff marked w/ fresh rappel slings. Not feeling like downclimbing vertical rock in mountain boots, I climbed up a bit, eventually found my way to the notch and plunge-stepped down the couloir. Burgers at Jack's marked a fine end to this great outing!

Here it is, Memorial Day weekend, and it's cold and windy! What's up with that? After hearing dire predictions of soft snow on this peak we decided to leave the trailhead at midnight. Although the poor snow conditions never materialized, leaving that early (well, okay, we walked away at 1:15 am) was a bonus in terms of getting back with plenty of daylight. The skiing from the notch on down was awesome! The summit block is some fun scrambling. Staying near the arete is more exposed, but definitely more fun.

Bivied in the mine, then climbed the couloir. Snow was firm until around 7:30am (the sun really started beating down).

Climbed the rock section unroped - probably class 4+ with some 5th-class moves thrown in for good measure. Spent a good bit of time getting used to the feel of my boots at that climbing level, downclimbing, pondering, etc. Encountered ice in some of the cracks, making for some interesting moments.

2 guys came up while I pondered, and broke out their rope (37m x 8.5mm double), harnesses, pro, etc. which they were able to use to rap off.

Descended the class 2 scramble, then down the chute Doug noted in the route page. Beware of melt-freeze ice / scree near the rock; I eventually elected to stay well clear of that and plunge-step down the snow gully, eventually contouring to the scree / snow gully opposite the couloir. Climbed about 500' or so on scree / talus (nasty), then glissaded the couloir, which by early afternoon was pretty soft.

Ckimbed the chute on the excellent snow with some weather coming upon us.We made ot the top of the chute by 8 am starting from the basecamp on the old mine. My partner and I climber the rock section to the summit in 2.5 hrs. The easier ground was covered with ice and verglass, roped up twice to climb some 5.4 short pitches to the summit. Hiked down the snow chute on the western slope and then down the SE face, hiked up the talus field to the top of the E Couloir again. Great mountain with one of the best views of Sieera I have ever seen in 4 years of climbing here. Looked like we were the first in the 2005 winter/spring season who made it to the summit.

Day 4 of the 2004 Sierra Challenge. Climbed with Mark (PellucidWombat) and Michael Graupe on a very fun traverse up the East Couloir (ok, the couloir was a scree slog, but the class 4 above it was nice), over to S. Basin Peak, and on to Four Gables. The NE Ridge of S. Basin Peak had some great class 4 scrambling. Trip Report

Took a route to the right of the East Couloir that did not look like such a scree slog. Class 3 and short class 4. Popped out on the summit ridge 1.5 miles north of the summit and tagged the peak from there.

Day 4 of the Sierra Challenge. I took a bad fall in a chimney when a chockstone that I was standing on blew out - gouged my shin pretty bad. Luckily I still had the energy to do the class 4 ridge to South Basin Mountain and traverse to Four Gables!